Month: July 2010

SECOND UPDATE: NJDC’s David Harris calls me back to rescind his words about J Street’s bipartisan nature. See bottom of post.

UPDATED with response from J Street at bottom.

The controversial new pro-Israel outfit, Emergency Committee for Israel “is playing with fire,” says David Harris, president and CEO of the National Jewish Democratic Council, which recently released a “fact sheet” aimed at exposing what it says are ECI’s “dangerous” smear tactics.

ECI – founded earlier this month by neoconservatives and evangelical Christians – has been warring with J Street over the Pennsylvania Senate race, and both groups have sought to gain the upper hand by placing Israel front and center.

Laura: Liberals are the new nazis and are abetting the muslim murder of Jews. If the muslims are able to carry out their desire for a genocide of the Jews, it will be western liberals who would be guilty of paving the way.

As to the liberals contention that Stone isn’t an anti-Semite, these are people who scream accusations of “racism”, “islamophobia”, “homophobia” at the slightest criticism of their favored “victimized” groups.

And as to Hollywood’s defense of Stone, these are people who rallied around the child rapist Roman Polanski, so why would they have a problem with a rabid anti-Semite?

“Oliver stone joins Thomas, Gibson in ranks of out-of-closet Jew-haters.” It’s springtime for Jew-haters. This week Oscar winning conspiracy theorist Oliver Stone joined Helen Thomas and Mel Gibson in the swelling ranks of out-of-the-closet celebrity Jew-haters. In an interview with The Sunday Times, Stone said that Adolf Hitler had been given a bum rap and that through “Jewish domination of the media,” the Jews have inflated the importance of the Holocaust and wrecked US foreign policy.

In the wake of criticism in Jewish circles, on Wednesday Stone’s publicist issued a mealymouthed clarification.

Stone failed to retract or amend his statement that “There’s a major lobby in the United States.

They are hard workers. They stay on top of every comment, the most powerful lobby in Washington.

Israel has f—ed up United States foreign policy for years.”

He also did not retract his view that Jews use the Holocaust to control American foreign policy.

Stone simply referred to his claim that Jews make too much of the Holocaust because the Germans killed more Russians than Jews as “clumsy.”

He then broadened his initial allegation that Jews make too much of the Holocaust by allowing that we are joined in our efforts by non-Jews.

Well, no. Of course, they are not Nazis. That is, they are not members of the National Socialist German Workers Party (that’s not quite possible, now is it?) nor are they modern day Neo-Nazi white supremacists. They are, for the most part, leftists who claim to hate war, favor environmental regulation, women’s rights, gay rights, and the entire hodge-podge of issues, including an anti-racist agenda, that makes up what we call the “progressive movement.”

And, yet, on the foremost website devoted to electing Democrats, with over 250,000 registered users, they allow a malicious and vocal minority to drive the Israel-Palestine discussion in such a way as to create hatred, and thus violence, toward Jews. As if that’s not bad enough in itself, they also do so in a manner that echoes anti-Jewish Nazi propaganda from the 1930s. Again, my criticism of Daily Kos is not that they’re a bunch of anti-Semites, but that they provide a venue for a bunch of anti-Semites.

“It has become appallingly obvious that our technology has exceeded our humanity.”

(Albert Einstein 1879-1955. [Perhaps Israel is the exception to this rule. Read any issue of GN and form your own opinion])

· There aren’t that many ladies around who have had heart transplants, still fewer have had transplants and then had babies and even fewer, five worldwide to be exact, have had twins. Well, we have a proud new mother and her two daughters, one weighing in at 1.5 and the other at 2 kilos [3.3 and 4.4lbs respectively] right here in Israel and mother and babies are doing well. Of the four previous instances two were in the US, one was in France and another in Italy. The major problem facing the doctors is determining the balance of immune-suppressant drugs taken by the mother – enough to protect her heart from rejection but not enough to harm the babies. The doctors did what they had to, the mother did what she had to and the babies are doing what they have to. What a team! The result? Mazel Tov, Mazel Tov, yet another medical miracle performed here and that’s GN.

New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman wrote in an oft-quoted line that: “Criticizing Israel is not anti-Semitic, and saying so is vile. But singling out Israel for opprobrium and international sanction–out of all proportion to any other party in the Middle Eas –is anti-Semitic, and not saying so is dishonest.” The simple solution for peace in the Middle East may be for Israel to change its name to Norway. Yamit

Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a mental disorder that causes repeated unwanted and intrusive thoughts. An OCD sufferer will engage in repetitive behaviors (compulsions) aimed at reducing anxiety caused by these thoughts (obsessions). OCD is a chronic or long-term illness that can take over a person’s life, hurt relationships, and limit the ability to work or go to school[1].

Scientists have proven that OCD is caused by one part of the brain being unable to receive information from the other.

Laura: The democrats are increasingly being exposed as the party of hate. They are becoming more comfortable expressing overt anti-Semitism since this appeals to their base of radical leftists, racial minorities and the increasing influence of muslims in the party. They do this with the confidence that they will still receive the Jewish vote. Will the American Jewish community finally acquire enough self-respect to turn their backs on the democratic party which has betrayed them and become home to anti-Semites and other assorted freaks; America-haters, jihadis and communists?

Mike Grimm, a G.O.P challenger for Mike McMahon’s Congressional seat, took in over $200,000 in his last filing.

But in an effort to show that Grimm lacks support among voters in the district, which covers Staten Island and parts of Brooklyn, the McMahon campaign compiled a list of Jewish donors to Grimm and provided it to The Politicker.

The file, labeled “Grimm Jewish Money Q2,” for the second quarter fundraising period, shows a list of over 80 names, a half-dozen of which in fact do hail from Staten Island, and a handful of others that list Brooklyn as home.

Backspin Yesterday, The Independent visited the new Gaza mall and discovered something that should have movers and shakers in the boycott-divestment-sanctions movement (BDS) scratching their heads: The difference is that most consumer goods were previously smuggled through the tunnels from Egypt – whereas the mall’s managers say 90 percent of its new stock is imported from Israel.

How does that square with the Olympia Food Co-op’s boycott of Israeli products?

Sounds like the co-op and its Facebook supporters are acting more Palestinian than the Palestinians.

Arizonans will be grateful for some extra help from the National Guard, starting Sunday, in protecting the border and fighting drug violence — especially now that a federal judge has blocked key parts of their recent illegal-immigration law. But there’s a more pressing border issue that goes beyond Arizona: the alliance between drug cartels and groups that aim to smuggle terrorists into our country through the Mexican border.

Last week’s detonation along the Texas-Mexico border of an Improvised Explosive Device similar to those used in Iraq and Afghanistan strongly suggests that Hezbollah is working with the drug cartels — and that America is unsafe. Law-enforcement officials and intelligence analysts believe that terrorist groups like al Qaeda have been working with such gangs as the ruthless MS-13 to smuggle terrorists into America.

Teva may still be our flagship enterprise, but there are many now giving chase for the top spot. Globalization and NOT belonging to a regional trade group has allowed small countries like Israel to overcome small local markets and expand outward. Being free of restrictive trading block memberships has allowed Israel to overcome many disadvantages with economic flexibility and creative out of the box thinking. We are free to do business with less trading and political restrictions. This is why we must divest from American aid. A country not economically independent cannot be politically independent. Puny American aid costs us billions yearly in revenue and tens of thousands of well paid jobs!Yamit

Summer in Miami can make Tel Aviv seem breezy by comparison. Driving south on Biscayne Boulevard on a steamy Thursday afternoon, the landmark gleaming glass Ivax building suddenly punctuates the horizon. I took the elevator to what seemed to be the top floor; yet another elevator takes you to the chairman’s office. But Doctor Phillip Frost, together with his professional staff, makes visitors feel instantly comfortable.

Dr. Frost is among the most successful entrepreneurs in history, certainly within the medical industry. He has built, operated and sold several companies, and has earned multiple fortunes for himself and his investors. In Israel, he has become better known in Israel since Teva acquired Ivax for $7.6 billion in January 2006 and since he became chairman of Teva earlier this year. Frost owns 1.7% of Teva, a stake worth $870 million. He is listed as one of the wealthiest people in America and in the world, and has been an iconic presence in the south Florida business community for over 30 years.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich on Thursday said the greatest threat to national security is radical Islam, but the greatest battlefront for that threat is at home.

“This is not a war on terrorism … this is a struggle with radical Islamists,” Mr. Gingrich told a group of about 200 people at the American Enterprise Institute.

In his “America at Risk” speech, he drew comparisons to the U.S.’ situation in World War II and the Cold War, calling for today’s leaders to use some of the same strategies from those earlier conflicts.

The problem is that many leaders are “sleepwalking” and don’t face the Islamic threat, said Mr. Gingrich, who is widely thought to be a possible contender for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination.

He did not limit the war to the fighting in the Middle East, saying there are two additional, more important fronts: the United States and Europe. He noted that 54 jihadists have been arrested in the U.S. on terrorism charges since President Obama took office.

“Every one of these instances constitutes a breakdown in national security,” Mr. Gingrich said.

He emphasized that such talk does not demonize all Muslims.

“Let me draw a sharp distinction between those Muslims who live in the modern world and those Muslims who would radically change the modern world,” he said. “The people who want to worship God in their own way and live under American law – we’re not in the fight with them,” Mr. Gingrich said in an interview after the speech.

I am part of a list serve dedicated at first to fighting the Goldstone Report. It has now morphed into a group of bloggers, government reps and journalists who exchange ideas and information with each other.

Yesterday we held a meeting in Jerusalem to discuss strategy for making a difference.

In attendence were Melanie Phillips, Lori Lowenthal Marcus, founder of Z Street, Michael Totten who writes for Commentary among others, Jan Jacobson who focuses on lawfare and Gerald Adler from the UK, all of who were visiting.

Stern points out thsat after WWII Russia force marched 12 million Germans back to Germany from neighboring countries. Russia did not want either a fifth column in these countries and didn’t want Germany to have a reason to once again attack them. The flight from Palestine by Arabs must be seen in this context. Only 2 years separated these events. Israel has every reason to deny the return of Arabs to the lands it keeps.

The Palestinian national narrative is the biggest obstacle to peace in the Middle East.

A specter is haunting the prospective Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations—the specter of the Nakba. The literal meaning of the Arabic word is “disaster”; but in its current, expansive usage, it connotes a historical catastrophe inflicted on an innocent and blameless people (in this case, the Palestinians) by an overpowering outside force (international Zionism). The Nakba is the heart of the Palestinians’ backward-looking national narrative, which depicts the creation of the State of Israel in 1948 as the original sin that dispossessed the land’s native people. Every year, on the anniversary of Israel’s independence, more and more Palestinians (including Arab citizens of Israel) commemorate the Nakba with pageants that express longing for a lost paradise. Every year, the legend grows of the crimes committed against the Palestinians in 1948, crimes now routinely equated with the Holocaust. Echoing the Nakba narrative is an international coalition of leftists that celebrates the Palestinians as the quintessential Other, the last victims of Western racism and colonialism.

Druze Lebanese leader, Walid Jumblatt, recently created an uproar over the 400,00 Palestinian refugees in Lebanon. Jumblatt’s father, who once led the Druze, was assassinated in 1977. The Druze are a group of non-Arab Muslims, whose sect is considered heretical by many other Muslims. Their origins date back to the 10th century and they comprise about 10% of the Lebanese population. The remainder of the Lebanese population is mostly Arab Muslim or Arab Christian. (Lebanon was once predominantly Christian. Many Christian Lebanese do not identify themselves as Arab, but prefer to be known as descendants of the ancient Canaanites and call themselves “Phoenicians”.)

Laura: Obama is working underhandedly to screw over Israel despite the recent public charade that Obama and Bibi are now pals and Obama is committed to Israel’s security. A charade that Bibi willingly participated in and Jewish liberals fell for. I would prefer Obama to remain openly hostile to Israel. I do not believe the British Foreign Office was “surprised” or disturbed by Cameron’s remarks. The Foreign Office is similar to our own State Department which is anti-Israel to its core. This does not of course excuse the pathetic David Cameron.

Pam Geller, Atlas Shrugs Cameron’s speech in Turkey slammed Israel. The British Foreign Office was blamed, but they’re claiming they were as surprised as anyone. Behind the scenes I hear from good sources that it was Obama’s people who put the slamming of Israel into Cameron’s speech. This ties right into my book (just out this week).

Just as Blair was Bush’s “puppy,” Cameron is Obama’s lapdog.

This, once again, points to Obama’s obsession with destroying the Jewish state. Obama is warring against Israel. When Sean Hannity asked me on his show if I thought Obama was an anti-semite, I said yes. He is.

Seven years after he was named NBA Rookie of the Year, joining the ranks of basketball legends Wilt Chamberlain, Larry Bird and Michael Jordan, power forward Amar’e Stoudemire landed in Israel on Wednesday morning, drove straight to Jerusalem, and joined the ranks of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as well.

“The Holy Land has always been high on my list of places to visit, and when this opportunity arose, I wasn’t going to push it off any longer,” Stoudemire told The Jerusalem Post as he ate dinner at one of the capital’s fine kosher establishments with his girlfriend, Alexis. “I’m here for a vacation and to get some rest before the season.”

I am “so excited to be here,see all the important historical sites, learn Hebrew and to get a better understanding of my heritage,” he said.

Talk about intrusion. Talk about un-Constitutional. Talk about pot calling the kettle black. Now we are to have Mexican authorities patrolling and doing “justice” on American streets? Mexico home of rampant crime and government corruption? This is outrageous.

The statistics on Mexican illegals attacking Americans are out of the ball park. But I guess that isn’t biased because the majority of those attacked are white and do not count. You can do anything you want to a white person and it’s never racist.

The First Wave was begun by Muhammed and went on for over half a millennium. It created an Islamic Empire that extended from Arabia through a large part of Africa, much of Central Asia, east into Iran. The Second Wave, begun in the 14th century by a warlord, Osman Bey, known as the Ottoman, threatened to overwhelm all of Europe. The Muslims were halted in the 17th Century at the gates of Vienna. The Ottoman Empire was still vast and it continued to own all of the Middle East until the first World War, when the area was divided up — 99% going to the Muslims, 1% to the Jews. In this essay, we discuss the Third Wave of Islamic aggression, which is still in its early stages. “In the eyes of a fanatical and resolute minority of Muslims, the third wave of attack on Europe has clearly begun. We should not delude ourselves as to what it is and what it means. This time it is taking different forms — two in particular, terror and migration.” This is what we have been told by Bernard Lewis, the doyen of Middle East historians.[1] The United States is an additional target of this third wave; here the jihad employs terror, migration and stealth.[2] The facts are set forth below. They show that our ally Israel is the US’s first line of defense in our common struggle to protect Western Civilization from a new period of Dark Ages. by Wallace Edward Brand

The cause of the current wave of terrorism, according to the political left and the political right

In a final thrust to persuade reluctant Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to enter direct talks with Israel, the EU coupled strong exhortations on Wednesday to Abbas to immediately begin them, with statements designed to give him confidence that once at the negotiating table, he will have strong support for a number of his key positions. CONTINUE

We all know that Netanyahu has been pushing for direct negotions but we are not sure why. On the one had he doesn’t want to be labled as anti-peace. On the otherhand, if negotiations ever start, he will come under great pressure to make concessions he doesn’t want to make. Is he prepared to make them? Does he feel that Abbas will compromise? Can’t imagine it.

Why does he continue the freeze. It served no purpose. It was unilateral so why stick to it. Why not remove the defacto freeze. It really upsets me that he grandstanded that he wouldn’t extend the freeze to Jerusalem and then did so unofficially.

Will he extend the freeze in whole or in part? How much of a freeze will his coalition tolerate? If he doesn’t extend it, will Labor leave the government?